{"id":549965,"date":"2026-07-14T22:44:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/549965\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T22:44:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T22:44:38","slug":"taxi-driver-was-caught-leaving-dublin-airport-with-over-e120k-in-undeclared-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/549965\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxi driver was caught leaving Dublin Airport with over \u20ac120k in undeclared cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A taxi driver was caught leaving Dublin Airport with over \u20ac120,000 in undeclared cash, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.<\/p>\n

Khaled Almoghayer (43) of Winston Cheshire, Belgium, pleaded guilty to attempting to leave the European Union with \u20ac10,000 or more on January 3rd, 2026. He has no previous convictions.<\/p>\n

Almoghayer is based in Belgium, where he has lived for the past 12 years, but is originally from Gaza, where his counsel said his property was destroyed.<\/p>\n

Garda Sarah Johnson of Dublin Airport told the court that garda\u00ed were contacted by the customs section of the Revenue.<\/p>\n

She said she met with the accused in the airport. In his check-in luggage, \u201cthere was a large quantity of cash in his suitcase\u201d stuffed in boots and socks and he had some in his manbag.<\/p>\n

Almoghayer said he had \u20ac3,000 but initially denied he had any money at all. The court heard he had \u20ac122,850.<\/p>\n

He stated it was his life savings, and he was going to buy a property in Turkey and to get his teeth done.<\/p>\n

He was taken to the garda station, where he stated that he travelled into this country on his own and went straight to a hotel by taxi.<\/p>\n

However, CCTV showed he went with a man to Rathmines and was picked up by a gentleman.<\/p>\n

He travelled 12 times from Ireland to Istanbul this year and said it was life-saving. Almoghayer said he had no bank statements or records to prove that he had this in savings.<\/p>\n

The court heard he was observed coming to Ireland the previous day. He got a taxi to Rathmines and said he had been dropped to a hotel but he could not provide proof of the hotel booking.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed observed him and other people arriving at the airport. He travelled here from Turkey on a Belgian passport and is originally from Palestine.<\/p>\n

He lives in state-funded accommodation in Belgium, where he has a wife and three children. He travelled 22 times in the last 12 months to countries including Egypt, Morocco, and also went back to Palestine.<\/p>\n

He is in custody since January 3rd this year and came forward from the district court on a signed plea.<\/p>\n

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Passing sentence on Tuesday, Judge Elma Sheahan said the evidence that he passed through the country a few times to visit his parents living in Istanbul \u201cis somewhat questionable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge said an aggravating factor was the seriousness of the offending. The mitigating factors included his early plea, which was \u201cof significant value\u201d, and lack of previous convictions.<\/p>\n

She noted his family was in Belgium, having left Gaza 12 years ago, and custody is more difficult for a person who would not have family in the jurisdiction or who does not have English as a first language.<\/p>\n

Judge Sheahan gave him a 12-month sentence, but backdated to January for time spent in custody and suspended the balance on condition he leaves Ireland within seven days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A taxi driver was caught leaving Dublin Airport with over \u20ac120,000 in undeclared cash, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-549965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}